Subgrade vaults are widely used to house underground connections of electrical cables and water lines. The following references relate to the field of subgrade storage vaults and facilities and are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties: U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,697; U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,566; U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,240; U.S. Pat. No. 7,163,352; U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,137; U.S. Pat. No. 7,467,910; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,748,926. In part due to the high commodity prices of metals and other internal components, theft is an increasing problem which results in expensive replacement costs and extensive periods of downtime, including interruptions in communication, electrical, and/or water service. In response to the increasing theft rate, lockable lids have been utilized in connection with the subgrade vaults to prevent unauthorized access to the contents of the vaults.
The lockable vaults generally utilize an externally-threaded bolt and a corresponding internally-threaded nut. The lockable vaults have been useful in preventing theft. However, the lockable vaults have created problems for authorized individuals who need access to the vault contents. For example, in many situations, the threaded bolt becomes stuck, seized, rusted, corroded, or otherwise impossible to remove from the lockable vault. In these situations, the authorized individual spends vast amounts of time trying to remove the vault lid to access the vault's contents. In many circumstances, the lid is destroyed in an attempt to remove the bolt.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a nut configured for threadably engaging a threaded bolt that reduces the galling, sticking, seizing, rusting, corrosion, and other common issues that increase the difficulty of removing a bolt from a nut. Although the aforementioned problems have been discussed in particular to subgrade vaults, it should be appreciated that the nut of the present disclosure can be utilized in applications beyond subgrade vaults.